Creole Chrome is under consideration for the Indiana Derby after his 18-length win in the $100,000 Louisiana Legends Cheval last Saturday night at Evangeline Downs, according to his trainer, Joe Sharp.

Creole Chrome earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 96.

Sharp said Tuesday Creole Chrome emerged from the race in excellent condition and that the Indiana Derby is one of two possible options for the horse who has returned to his base of Churchill Downs. The Grade 3, $300,000 Indiana Derby at 1 1/16 miles is July 11 at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Grand Slam Smile, the near-millionaire Cal-bred mare trained by Sean McCarthy, will point to a sprint stakes at Los Alamitos in an attempt to reach seven figures.

McCarthy said the Grade 2, $200,000 Great Lady M. Stakes, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint on July 4, is the target for Grand Slam Smile, a 12-time winner of $984,120 from 21 starts. Grand Slam Smile has won 10 stakes.

“She’s doing well. She’ll work this weekend,” McCarthy said early this week. “We’ll nominate her to the Great Lady M. and see where we go from there.”

Doncho’s first act as a sprinter with star potential came on dirt, but the way he ran Saturday at Churchill Downs, Doncho’s ready for a leading role on turf.

Making his second start at age 5, Doncho ran what almost certainly was the best race of his life, beating the crack turf sprinter Joe Shiesty by three-quarters of a length in the $225,000 Mighty Beau Stakes. A neck behind Joe Shiesty came Troubleshooting, winner late last summer of the age-restricted Grade 1 Franklin-Simpson.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Cherie DeVaux may have had the best week of any trainer to run horses at Saratoga during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, but Mark Casse was a close second.

While DeVaux won two Grade 1s, highlighted of course by Golden Tempo’s victory in the $2 million Belmont Stakes, Casse won three Grade 1 stakes, and four stakes and five races overall.

ARCADIA, Calif. – So Happy, the Santa Anita Derby winner who finished ninth in the Kentucky Derby, is taking a midseason break from the racetrack before he resumes training this summer at Del Mar.

“He’s getting a little break, he’s at the farm,” trainer Mark Glatt said Saturday. So Happy was recently shipped from Santa Anita to Trifecta Equine Athletic Center in North San Diego County.

Glatt expects So Happy to resume training after the Del Mar meet opens on July 17. “It’s a short break,” Glatt said. “He’ll be back during Del Mar.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Making his first start as a gelding, Grade-1 placed Iron Man Cal scored his first victory since 2024 on Sunday at Santa Anita. Runner-up in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, Iron Man Cal won a deep second-level allowance on Sunday and may return to stakes this summer at Del Mar.

It is not often that a Grade 1-placed colt undergoes the ultimate equipment change, but trainer Phil D’Amato could see Iron Man Cal was going nowhere as a full horse. “Just a big, heavy horse and he had a little bit of hang to him,” D’Amato said after the Sunday allowance.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The hottest stable at Santa Anita the past three weeks will enter summer with momentum. Trainer John Sadler has won with 13 of his last 22 starters, and even the ones that fell short are likely to improve when the circuit moves to Del Mar next month.

Those include The Goat, a Group 1 winner in Chile aiming for the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap on July 18, and Full Serrano, the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner also under consideration for the San Diego.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Nearly 50 years has passed since Happy Intellectual won three consecutive runnings of the New York Turf Writers Steeplechase at Saratoga.

The race has a different name now, honoring the late trainer Jonathan Sheppard. A modern top-class runner may soon join Happy Intellectual on the race’s honor roll.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Tough losses are becoming frequent for the 5-year-old mare Grand Job.

After finishing second by a nose to Eclatant in the Grade 1 Madison Stakes at Keeneland on April 4, Grand Job was beaten a nose by Ways and Means in the Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs at Saratoga on Friday.

Grand Job set the pace in the Bed o’ Roses Stakes, and led by 1 1/2 lengths with a furlong remaining before she was caught at the finish.